One of the most popular types of interior decoration is wallpapering. But in order for the result to please, you need to know how to glue the wallpaper correctly. There are a sufficient number of nuances that affect the quality of the finish.
Preparatory stage
First, everything that can be removed in the room is removed, including door frames and baseboards, if possible. They also remove sockets and switches, closing the boxes with wires with plugs – plastic or wooden.
Turn off electrical outlets
When working with an electrician, we de-energize the room and do not turn it on until we finish. It is advisable to carry out all work, including wallpapering, with the power turned off. The work is “wet”, and water or glue can get on the wires and short out. If the wiring is done in accordance with all the rules and there are circuit breakers, this is not scary. They just cut off the power and that’s it.
If the wiring is still done in the old way, it can be dangerous. Worst of all, in this case it is often not possible to turn off the power supply in a separate room. Only in the whole apartment or, at best, in its half. Then the way out is to remove the power wires from the sockets and switches (when the power is off, of course) and carefully insulate the ends, then hiding them under the plugs. Then you have to unwind them and put them in place, but it will be safe this way.
Lighting during work is done temporarily – extension cords are pulled from other rooms and portable lamps are turned on. After you figured out the electricity, you can move on.
If the walls are only leveled and puttied, you do not need to do anything other than a primer. But if they have an old coating – wallpaper or paint – you have to work. First remove the previous trim.
Cleaning off old wallpaper
If wallpaper is pasted on the walls, they are hooked at an arbitrary place with a corner of the spatula, then they are pulled by the bent corner, tearing it off. If you’re lucky, whole strips come off, sometimes several meters in a single sheet. But more often it turns out in small fragments. First, everything that will turn out “dry” is removed. If it is very difficult and in small parts, they take a basin of water and a roller, wet the walls in this way. To make them easier to lag behind, you can add dish detergent to the water.
If the wallpaper is paper, water is simply applied to the surface. If they are vinyl or with some other durable film, the film is first torn through. This can be done with a spiked roller, you can use a brush with metal bristles. The main thing is to break through the film so that water can soak into the base – paper or interlining – and soak the glue. Sometimes you need to wet the wallpaper several times to make it easier to move away.
Further actions are the same as with paper ones: we hook it with a spatula and tear it off. Sometimes this technique – tearing off pieces – is ineffective. It turns out faster if you clean off the soaked finish with a spatula. Then we scrape at an acute angle with a blade along the wall. In general, no matter how, but the old wallpaper must be removed completely.
Removing paint and whitewash
You also have to work with a spatula, cleaning off centimeter by centimeter. The work is monotonous and rather tedious, and also dirty. There are several ways to speed things up.
Oil paint on concrete
Actually, there are two options: chemical and mechanical. Chemical – these are special washes for paint. The composition most often looks like a gel. They are applied to the surface and, after some time, (indicated on the package) rises in bubbles or begins to shrink. The paint has softened and can be removed with any spatula.
Everything happens quite simply, but there are two “buts”. The first is the price of a wash is rather big. The second is that evaporation is clearly not useful. It is necessary to work in a ventilated room, but at the same time do not dry the wash, otherwise there will be no effect. And still, even when airing, sometimes my head hurts a lot. So a respirator will not hurt, and gloves are also required.
The mechanical method is not just a spatula. So it will take a very long time to scrape. Use a grinder or puncher. On the grinder there are brushes made of metal wire. You can try to take it off. The method works, but not always or it turns out too slowly. Then you can take a puncher and a chisel, and holding the chisel perpendicular to the surface, drive it along the wall without deepening it. The paint bounces off briskly. After such a “shock” treatment, it remains to clean up the remains with a spatula.
Water emulsion, whitewash or paint on gypsum plaster
Removing this type of paint on the walls is no easier. It turns out to scrape, only very, very slowly. The way out is very simple: again water and a special paint scraper. You can buy it at a hardware store. Immediately take a few spare blades: the kitchen, for example, takes three or four pieces.
Rinse the wall well with water. Brush or roller, you can several times. Then leave to soak. And then you start cleaning with a scraper. The paint just bounces off. It is only important that the wall is well wet.
How to choose wallpaper for the corridor and hallway, read here.
Filling irregularities
Here you first have to assess the condition of the walls. First you need to pull out all the nails, screws, remove chips and embroider cracks. Then look at the results. If the walls are more or less even, there are only small defects, you can get by with episodic alignment. Close up only cracks, dents, chips. They can be covered with finishing putty. Only before leveling the wall, finally clean it of dust and pieces of wallpaper, and then cover it with a primer (wall roller and brush in the corners).
If the wall is after “processing” with a puncher, you can’t do without a full-fledged putty of the entire wall. Mostly today, gypsum putty is used. First, a layer of primary or starting is applied. It is with a coarser grain and the layer can be up to 3-5 mm. With this composition, the main irregularities are leveled, trying to achieve a flat surface. After drying, they pass with a special mesh, removing bumps and sagging that may be.
After the finishing putty is used. It is very plastic and is applied in a thin layer – up to 1-2 mm. Here, after it, the wall becomes smooth (after the irregularities have been smoothed out with a grid, only with a smaller cell).
Wall priming
The second layer of primer is applied after puttying. It forms a film on the surface, which reduces the absorption of the adhesive, and also improves adhesion. For the case of wallpapering, a thinner wallpaper paste can be used as a primer. Each pack has a table that indicates the amount of water for gluing and primer. We dilute the glue in the right proportion, wait for it to be ready (also on the package) and cover the walls with the composition. The priming technique is the same: first go through the corners with a brush, then smooth surfaces with a roller.
In the video, the use of primary putty is for some reason called plaster, but otherwise the sequence of actions is correct.
The rules and methods for combining wallpapers are described in this article.
Gluing rules
When pasting wallpaper, there are several rules that must be followed. The technique varies depending on the type of wallpaper, as does the glue, which is necessary for a quality result. the difference is mainly in when and where to apply the adhesive. You don’t have to guess. Everything is on the insert, which is included on each roll of wallpaper. There it is depicted in graphic form, and in some it is written which of the parts should be smeared with glue: only the wall or only the wallpaper, or maybe both at once.
But some things remain unchanged. For example, drawing a starting strip.
Where to start
In fact, the starting point is not so important. It is important that the first strip is glued strictly vertically. Therefore, the choice is yours.
If the room has a well-drawn corner: even and exactly vertical, you can start from it. You can start from the door with a perfectly exposed jamb. If there is nothing like that, draw yourself a landmark yourself. Take the building level, mark a point on the wall and draw an exactly vertical line through it. Inexpensive building levels of a household class, which we usually use in repairs, sometimes give a solid error. And since it is important for us to stick the first strip strictly vertically, check the accuracy of the line with a plumb line. Here he never lies, showing exactly down. If everything is fine, you will align the edge of the strip along this line.
If you still haven’t decided where to start gluing wallpaper from and this is your first experience in this area, start with the wall that is less visible than others. For example, the one along which there is a closet. It will be difficult for you for a couple of first pages, and then you will better understand what’s what and there will be fewer flaws.
How to glue wallpaper on the wall
If glue, at the request of the manufacturers, is applied to the cut piece, the smeared strip is folded so that the smeared side is inside. To do this, wrap the edges to the middle, then fold several more times. The folds are not pressed. Let them stay round. This is necessary so that all layers are saturated and the canvas fits well on the wall, and also sticks without bubbles.
If you want to apply glue to the wall, coat the area a little more than the width of the wallpaper. The area under the ceiling, in the corner and near the floor is smeared with a brush. Then the rules are general.
Take the cut off strip, climb the ladder. Bring the upper edge a few centimeters to the ceiling, then align one of the edges along the drawn “start” line. Since the wallpaper today is glued end-to-end, it does not matter which of the edges.
Strictly attaching the side edge to the line, moving from this line to the other edge, glue the wallpaper in the ceiling area. Then, gradually moving down, go down a little lower.
Extra centimeters on the ceiling are cut off. It is more convenient to do this with a paper knife and a large spatula. Press the paper well against the corner by swiping your hand. Then apply a spatula. Run a knife blade along its edge.
When gluing the canvases, movements are made from the center of the strip to the side and slightly down, expelling the trapped air to the edges. Previously, this was done with a rag, but it turns out better and faster with a roller with an elastic nozzle (it is usually yellow). When working with it, there are practically no bubbles. But if the wallpaper is structural, with an extruded pattern, they can be crushed with a roller. Then take a wallpaper brush. It is wide and flat, with a hard pile.
Having reached the place where the strip has not yet been glued, unfold the rest tightly and follow the same pattern. First, expose the edge, then use a roller or rag to expel the air, achieving a flat surface.
The second strip is glued in exactly the same way, with the only difference that the canvas already on the wall will serve as a guide for gluing the edge. That’s why it’s important to stick it evenly, otherwise everyone else will also mow.
Features of the choice of wallpaper for the bedroom are discussed here.
Secrets of pasting corners
The most difficult thing is to properly glue the wallpaper in the corners. But that’s only as long as you don’t know the secret. At first, you can try to do it simply. Wrap one of the parts on the adjacent wall by 1-2 cm, and cut the second at the corner.
It’s easy to do, and it looks good. But on some wallpapers, this strip is very visible. There is another way for this case. Glue the canvases on both sides of the corner so that they wrap at least a little on the other side (2-3 cm is enough). Press well so that they fit exactly. to the walls and corner.
Then take a special cutter or a large spatula. Press it in the corner, cut the wallpaper along its edge with a sharp knife. It is necessary to cut both sheets at the same time, so considerable effort may be required. To make the cut continuous, do not tear off the knife. Stopping, move the spatula, which rests on the blade, and then continue the cut.
Having cut off everything, remove both cut strips, and join the remaining canvases in the corner. If the wallpaper was well pressed before cutting, the match is perfect, without any discrepancies.
How to glue wallpaper on the outer corners? Pretty much the same way. In the first case, one of the strips is wrapped around the corner by one or two centimeters (for thicker wallpapers, 2 cm is better, for thin ones, 1 cm is enough). The second strip is glued strictly along the corner. If this overlap is visible (usually on non-woven wallpaper), it will be necessary to cut along the entire strip. In this case, wrap more and cut vertically with the same spatula and knife. Remove the cut off, glue the joint.
Meter wallpaper in the corners is glued in the same way as narrower ones. It happens that a narrow strip is needed in the corner, and the rest is cut off. If the wallpaper is without a pattern, it can be used somewhere, at least in a different corner. With patterned canvases, they can also sometimes be attached somewhere, but this is more difficult to do. That’s why they take patterned ones with a decent margin: just for such cases.
How to glue vinyl wallpaper on a paper basis, how to expel non-ideal corners in this video.
What wallpaper is better in the kitchen read here.
How to glue wallpaper near the door and window
If the doors or window are flush with the plane of the wall, there is usually no problem. The wallpaper is cut along the door frame or along the edge of the trim. The canvas to the corner of the casing or frame is cut at an angle of about 45 °. The cut parts are wrapped along the opening, bent and then cut off with scissors or a knife. Smoother and faster is obtained using a knife and spatula.
More difficult is the option when it is necessary to paste over the slope of the door or window. When using paper wallpaper, the principle is again simple: we glue the strip on the slope, leading it 1 cm onto the wall. From above we glue a piece exactly along the cut of the window opening.
But with wallpaper on non-woven fabric, this method will not work: “leaks” are too visible. In this case, the strip is cut along the window opening with a small margin. Another fragment is glued on top with an overlap, cutting them exactly along the cut of the window opening. The glued piece is wrapped inside, on a slope. Then join as before.
It is difficult to explain in words. More accessible in video. In it, by the way, there is a plot about the design of wallpaper for arched openings.
How to make seams invisible
Care must be taken during gluing to ensure that the joints of the canvases are invisible. You need to connect the canvases so that there is no gap between them, but also so that they do not overlap one another even by a millimeter. A perfect match needs to be achieved.
Since we meet perfectly even walls, alas, infrequently, it turns out that the seam creeps a little, then diverges. Your task is to move the canvas so that it becomes perfect and invisible. You can move the canvases with your hands – they can slightly stretch and shrink. This is how you achieve the desired match. If the defect formed is too large and nothing can be achieved by shifts, the strip is peeled off to this point and, corrected as necessary, glued again. Sometimes, if the seam sticks out a little, rolling with a special tapered roller can help.
With this technique, it turns out that first the edge is glued, which is joined, and then, from it they begin to smooth the rest of the surface of the canvas. If you have examined the seam and are satisfied with the result, take a clean rag and wipe it from excess glue that could come out with all these actions.
For information on how to glue meter-long non-woven vinyl wallpaper and how to make the joint invisible, see the video.
We eliminate shortcomings
With a lack of experience, it may happen that after or during drying, bubbles appear on the walls. You can remove them with simple steps. Take a large syringe, draw glue into it, pierce the bubble and inject some glue into it. Vinyl wallpaper, acrylic, paper – the upper part is unimportant. Actions vary depending on the basis. If the wallpaper is paper-based, wait five to seven minutes, if it is non-woven, act immediately.
Next, you need to use a roller, spatula or rag to expel the air from the bubble. To begin with, drive the glue inside, then from the edges to the puncture, expel the air along with excess glue. Wipe them off with a clean rag.
Quite often the seams diverge. Wallpaper may lag along the flow or baseboard. There are two ways to glue them. Use a brush and leftover glue or buy a special one for seams. It comes in a tube and is applied pointwise. And again, the procedure depends on the base. Having wet the paper, we wait for a while, then we glue it, watching the coincidence of the edges.